Which car will contain the most parts?

ICE

M3

I wonder which car actually contains the most parts. I know the basic parts of the M3 will be Motor / Battery / Interior / etc. , however I would have to believe that the Rear Motor of the M3 contains billions of parts inside and would would surpass the ICE car part list all by itself. .

I do understand that sections of the M3 Motor will not be serviceable, and that most people will consider the motor as 1 piece of the car even though there are billions of parts inside.

It depends on how you count parts, and whether it's even important. There are 6 million parts in a 747 jet. Cars have less.

Current Teslas have over 7000 individual batteries. Electric motors tend to built of a stack of plates. Modern EV cables are about 8 strips of thin copper plate. The inverters have lots of components as do the chargers.

But what is important is the cost of the driveline as a complete system, not the quantity of parts. Today, an EV drive system costs more than an ICE drive system in general.

EVs also have many less moving parts and especially no reciprocating driveline parts which should reduce noise and wear significantly. Check out the parts diagrams for modern 9 speed dual clutch transmissions or variable timing valve systems!

Or fewer moving parts, maybe? EVs don't have planetary gear transmissions so that is a very large complex piece that isn't in an EV. Edit: tpoltron beat me to it

Other than Teslas, most EVs have lower maintenance requirements, so that also factors into people's perceptions of complexity. Fewer fan belts, oil changes, much less frequent brake changes, etc. that people are familiar with on ICE cars.

The electric motor has very few parts, I have no idea where your getting the idea that the motor has billions of parts. It has a lot of copper wire, a rotor, a housing, bearings and electrical connectors. The ICE engines have exactly the same number of parts in just the starter (it's an electric motor too). The only place an electric car may have more parts is the battery is made from 6000-7000 cells. This is just in Tesla's case since most other manufacturers are using a few large batteries instead of lots of tinny ones.

Like McRat said, it really depends on how you define parts. If it's individual components, EVs may have more parts because of all the electronic components. If you're talking about parts that are able to be mechanically disassembled, then an ICEs in genreal will probably have more, although the thousands of cells in a Tesla pack is substantial. If you're looking at unique parts that are able to be mechanically disassembled then any diesel with an injector pump is where it's at.

The big reason why I think EVs will replace ICEs sooner or later is because the stuff that is complex, like the electronics, also tend to be very reliable, and the stuff that will degrade and needs to be replaced, like batteries, can use commodity packaging to minimize cost. Some of the wearables on an ICE, particularly the engine/transmission components, tend to be relatively unique, and don't benefit as much from economies of scale.

There really aren't any more electronic components in an electric car. The only system an electric car has that an ICE doesn't is the main drive inverted to control the main 3 phase motor, but it does have electronic components to control the starter. The only way you may possibly be able to say there are more electronic components is if you count all the resistors capacitors, diodes, etc mounted to the circuit boards as separate parts.

There really aren't any more electronic components in an electric car. The only system an electric car has that an ICE doesn't is the main drive inverted to control the main 3 phase motor, but it does have electronic components to control the starter. The only way you may possibly be able to say there are more electronic components is if you count all the resistors capacitors, diodes, etc mounted to the circuit boards as separate parts.

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And if you count all those loaded up SuVs with their own sets of screens, dials, knobs and individual AV systems on the seats, you'll quickly exceed the parts list of a Model 3 or S.

To put things into perspective, I've built electric model cars from the ground up when I was a child, here're things you need:
Copper wire for windings onto the rotor, stator housing plus some magnets, gears, axles, wheels, batteries, and chassis. That's it. You got yourself a moving car.
Admittedly this is nothing like a real passenger car (not even comparable to today's RC cars with brushless motor with ESC and LiPo batteries), but still, if you ask me to build an ICE car no matter the size, I don't even know where to start.

I wonder which car actually contains the most parts. I know the basic parts of the M3 will be Motor / Battery / Interior / etc. , however I would have to believe that the Rear Motor of the M3 contains billions of parts inside and would would surpass the ICE car part list all by itself. .

I do understand that sections of the M3 Motor will not be serviceable, and that most people will consider the motor as 1 piece of the car even though there are billions of parts inside.

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As a couple folks have said, it's all about what constitutes "parts." If the various elements of an integrated circuit count, all modern cars are incredibly complex - billions of transistors make emissions compliance and that smooth easy ride possible.

However, folks talking about parts are usually talking about reliability and maintainability. Solid state electronics are also amazingly reliable, and any ICE car has far more moving parts, which are also in much harsher environments (high temperatures, reversing directions hundreds of times per second.)

From a reliability standpoint, EVs should be much, much better off - far fewer things to break, and much less stress on those things. We'll have to see how it plays out in practice - most EVs are racking up pretty good records, though 12V batteries of all things have been challenging for a few of them...
Walter

The electric motor has very few parts, I have no idea where your getting the idea that the motor has billions of parts. It has a lot of copper wire, a rotor, a housing, bearings and electrical connectors. The ICE engines have exactly the same number of parts in just the starter (it's an electric motor too). The only place an electric car may have more parts is the battery is made from 6000-7000 cells. This is just in Tesla's case since most other manufacturers are using a few large batteries instead of lots of tinny ones.

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This is the Tesla S inverter that sits opposite of the motor in the rear. Looks like a lot of parts to me, however....maybe its just my perspective.

However, folks talking about parts are usually talking about reliability and maintainability. Solid state electronics are also amazingly reliable, and any ICE car has far more moving parts, which are also in much harsher environments (high temperatures, reversing directions hundreds of times per second.)